


Good Morning, Good Morning

by queerlyobscure (softestpunk)



Series: Good Morning, Good Morning [4]
Category: Captain America (2011), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Avengers Movies Universe, The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-05-28
Updated: 2012-05-28
Packaged: 2017-11-06 04:10:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/414544
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softestpunk/pseuds/queerlyobscure
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve realises that Tony isn't the only one in the wrong, and a couple of other things along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Morning, Good Morning

“Tony, we’re friends, right?” Steve chewed on his lip. He was never nervous, not any more, except for right now.   
  
“Yeah,” Tony drawled. “But starting a conversation that way is worrying.” He flicked the TV off and looked over the back of the couch. “Something on your mind?”   
  
“I’ve been thinking.” Steve sat down beside him.   
  
“Dangerous hobby.” Tony shifted, and moved to face him. He seemed so comfortable that it almost seemed a shame to bring this up, because Steve knew it was going to hurt, again. But he had to hurt to heal this time. “I take it this thinking has led to something you’d like to share?”   
  
Steve took a deep breath. He was going to have to do this some time, before the guilt destroyed the tentative friendship they’d built, but he knew he had to tread carefully. “I said some really inexcusable things to you. I’m sorry, and I intend to apologise again in a moment, but I want to point out something before I do.”   
  
Tony tensed, but nodded a small, tight nod. “Go on.”   
  
“You barely flinched when I said them. Hardly reacted at all. I was angry, then, but I’m not now, and I know what that means. It means you’ve started to believe them, and I don’t... you shouldn’t.”   
  
“Why not? You’re not exactly the first person to call me cold hearted or a disappointment.” Tony shrugged. “I’m happy you’ve gotten over it.”   
  
“See, that’s my point, though. The Tony Stark I’ve come to know wouldn’t let people get away with insulting him. He  _doesn’t_ let people get away with it, not with anything else, except those two things. And neither of them are true.”   
  
“Pardon?”   
  
Just a little of the tension drains out of Steve at Tony’s obvious confusion. He’s been thinking about what he’ll do next, and decides that his first thought was his best one. “Can I see the arc reactor?”   
  
That gets Tony’s attention. Steve hasn’t missed the thicker shirts, designed to hide it, that Tony’s been wearing for a while now. He knows that Tony thinks it makes him uncomfortable, or that it makes him think he really is a machine wearing a man’s body, or something, and he wants him to see otherwise.   
  
“Umm. I guess that’s a creative way of getting me naked,” Tony quips, but there’s no joy in it. Nervousness makes his fingers shake, but he is unbuttoning his shirt all the same. Unthinking, Steve rests a hand on his thigh to steady him. Tony pauses, but only for long enough to see that it’s really just a hand and it’s really just resting there, and unbuttons the rest of the way. He shrugs it off and then pulls the thicker-than-usual t-shirt he’s wearing under it over his head, and sits with his shoulders slumped forward, looking down at the glowing circle in his chest.   
  
Not about to ruin the moment or make it any more unnerving for either of them, Steve reaches up and taps the front, as lightly as he can. He knows Tony can’t really feel it, but he can see it, and that makes him look up, every inch the lost, innocent little boy.   
  
Tony is technically older, in terms of years conscious, but right now, he’s not. He’s a kid looking for approval he never thought he’d get. “I read up on how this works. All the reports on what happened to you. It’s genius.”   
  
“It’s... necessary. Did you get any of it?”   
  
“Not really.” Steve smiled sheepishly, willing to show that he was a long way from perfect. He’d also realised, when he’d been reading up on Tony, that Tony had really lived in his shadow. “I know it’s not just there for decoration, though. And I know that it’s way ahead of it’s time.”   
  
“Something in common with you, then.” Tony smiled a tiny, self-effacing smile. It made Steve want a better one.   
  
“Yeah. That was the other thing. I knew your father pretty well, Tony.”   
  
Tony flinched visibly. His father was clearly a bit of an open wound. Especially, Steve suspected, when it came to his relationship with him. But he was going to continue anyway. “He told me once that he didn’t want to have kids in a world like the one we were living in. I guess that’s why you came along so late in his life. But I think... I don’t think he was looking for me for himself. I think he was looking for me for you.”   
  
“I don’t follow.” Tony’s expression was blank, but Steve knew he was putting the pieces together. It was just a matter of waiting for him to figure it out.   
  
“Okay. See, what I’m trying to say is, you’re not entirely unlike your dad - and I want to qualify that by pointing out that he was a really good friend to me - in that your expectations of other people are pretty high. Given the pressure he put on me, little more than a science project, I can guess how much more he put on you.”   
  
“You were a lot more than a science project. He...”   
  
Tony might have trailed off, but the ‘loved you more than me’ at the end of that sentence rang out clear in Steve’s mind. In a flash of realisation, Steve looked at Tony and saw a man instead of a hero.   
  
He wondered if Tony had ever done the same with him. And then, a moment later, he found himself leaning forward to press their lips together, needing him to see it now if he hadn’t before.    
  
He kissed Tony like he was the most important thing in the world, and it really wasn’t all that different from kissing a girl, honestly, but he wasn’t sure he should actually tell him that. He’d have plenty of other things to tell him when they came up for air, like that the way the arc reactor vibrated was kind of cool and that he was sorry for overshadowing his childhood and that he liked that Tony was on the small side because when he crawled into his lap it felt like when a wild animal approaches you and that he was the only person he really trusted right now, even though he tried to think the best of people.   
  
Or he could just tell him what a fantastic kisser he was and hope that it didn’t sound as stupid out loud as it did in his head.   
  
By the time they backed off from each other, Steve had somehow ended up on his back on the couch, Tony sitting on top of him, flushed and panting but with no malice, no anger, nothing but slightly confused lust showing on his face. At least, Steve was really starting to hope that was lust, or his own reaction would get embarrassing quickly.   
  
“You still owe me a first time,” he blurted out. Wow. That was so far from what he’d intended to say that he wasn’t completely sure he’d said it. Tony didn’t look completely sure he’d heard right, either, so maybe he hadn’t?   
  
“I don’t think that’s what I said.” Tony frowned. “Not that I’m saying no, because I was kind of set up to fetishise you from a very young age and honestly, a forty-year crush is kind of a hard thing to shake off even if the guy you have it on is a complete dick to begin with, because I’m just starting to see the guy I think my dad saw in you. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t have sex with you, honestly. And I’m shutting up now.”   
  
Steve laughed. Honestly, truly laughed for the first time since he’d woken up, and once he started, he couldn’t quite seem to stop. He laughed himself to tears, to stomach cramps and out of breath, all while Tony looked at him incredulously because okay, it had to look from his perspective like the strain of being defrosted after nearly seventy years had finally made him snap.   
  
“I’m sorry.” He managed through gasped breaths and uncontrollable giggles. “Give me a minute.”   
  
“You know you’ve had, like, seven and a quarter already, right?” Tony raised an eyebrow. Steve managed not to laugh, but only because he was in too much pain by now to do much more than cough and wince.   
  
“Apology accepted, by the way. You’re right, I hear those things a lot. And yeah, I guess I believe them sometimes. But it doesn’t matter what I believe.”   
  
“It does, though.” Steve took a deep breath. “This is not about me, but I hate the idea that you might think you’re not good enough or you don’t match up to your dad. I  knew him, Tony, and I know you, and you’re twice the man he was. I mean it.” He reached out to trace the line of Tony’s cheekbone. “Kinda startling how alike you are, really. But I never wanted a hug from him. Never craved his acceptance. Not because I felt I had it, but because I felt it was futile. I was a science project. Now you’re the only one who makes me feel like I’m not.”   
  
Tony smiled in a way that Steve recognised as the kind of sad acceptance he’d come to as well. “I get being treated like a science project.” Tony sighed. “Can we just... sit? And can I put my t-shirt back on? I’m getting cold.”   
  
Steve nodded and watched as Tony sat up and pulled his t-shirt back on, sure that he was still partly hiding the arc reactor. He’d work on making sure Tony knew it didn’t bother him.    
  
“So. Where to from here?” Tony settled beside him.    
  
“I was serious about that first time. I mean, I don’t mean to assume anything, but I guess I want to make it clear that I’d be all right with it. If you wanted.”   
  
Now it’s Tony’s turn to laugh. The sound isn’t cruel, though, and it makes Steve smile again. He has the sneaking suspicion that Tony would have liked pre-serum Steve Rogers, too, and that makes him precious.   
  
“I want.” Tony nodded. “But not tonight. You get the full-blown gentle first time, and I’ll even let you plan it, because that’s what you want, right?”   
  
“Right.” Steve smiled. “Thanks, Tony. And thank you for waking me up.”   
  
“You’re welcome.” Tony smiled one of the prettiest smiles Steve has ever seen. “And Steve? Good morning.”


End file.
